As a part of our analytical solutions for food and beverage safety, our application labs have been paying close attention to nutritional supplements and have developed a large number of analytical methods. Here we feature two application notes on testing vitamins.

Typically, ensuring supplements contain the labeled amounts of vitamins can be time-consuming and difficult. Application Note 251, Determination of Water- and Fat-Soluble Vitamins in Nutritional Supplements by HPLC with UV Detection, (downloadable PDF) provides an integrated and efficient HPLC method using UV detection and Thermo Scientific Acclaim Reversed-Phase LC columns for determining water- and fat-soluble vitamins in nutritional supplements. Water-soluble vitamins, including seven B-group vitamins and Vitamin C, were well-resolved on the Acclaim Polar Advantage (PA) II column using a phosphate buffer. In this approach, the highly polar Vitamin C is well-retained without using an ion-pairing reagent. Fat-soluble vitamins, including Vitamins A, A acetate, E, D2, D3, K1, and β-carotene, were well resolved on the Acclaim 120 C18 column using an organic-solvent mobile phase. Method performance, including linearity, detection limits, reproducibility, and analyte recovery, was evaluated for both methods.

Determination of Vitamins in Functional Waters by HPLC-UV-PDA Detection

Functional beverages are vitamin-enhanced waters that have gained consumer popularity for convenience, perceived health benefits, and improved flavor over tap water. These beverages are typically enriched with A, B, B-complex, C, and E vitamins, with advertised benefits of increased energy from B vitamins and antioxidant benefits from A, C, and E vitamins. Industry forecasts predict increased sales of these beverages in the coming years. The US FDA requires these beverages to be labeled with nutritional content, thus creating the need for robust vitamin assays. Application 216, Determination of Water- and Fat-Soluble Vitamins in Functional Waters by HPLC with UV-PDA Detection, (downloadable PDF) discusses a method that provides a rapid means of analyzing a sample for both water- and fat-soluble vitamins in a single injection using a low flow rate that minimizes mobile phase preparation time and reduces waste.